


so much more than royal (snatch your chain and mace your eyes)

by charleybradburies



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Arranged Marriage, Ballroom Dancing, Canon Character of Color, First Kiss, First Meetings, Friendship, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, I Don't Even Know, Kings & Queens, Love at First Sight, M/M, Magic, Magic-Users, Male Friendship, Marriage, Princes & Princesses, Royalty, Secrets, Soldiers, Stony Bingo, Supernatural Elements, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 14:31:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5874184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div class="center">
  <p>"If it feels good, tastes good / it must be mine<br/>Heroes always get remembered / but you know legends never die<br/>And if you don't know, now you know"</p>
  <p>Stony Bingo | Square S1 | AU: Supernatural</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	so much more than royal (snatch your chain and mace your eyes)

**Author's Note:**

> title from Panic! at the Disco's "Emperor's New Clothes"

“Remember what your dad told you. You don’t have to fall in love, you just have to -”

“Think like a businessman. I know what he said, Rhodey,” Tony gripes, straightening his suit jacket's lapels for what must be the hundredth time. 

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“He’s not gonna let you out of tradition just because you don’t like it, man.” Rhodey winces, probably knowing that Tony’s trying to think of some extravagant enough way to weasel out of his impending engagement. Tony sighs, but he certainly doesn’t drop the thought. Rhodey pulls him backwards by the neck of his jacket and reaches over his shoulders to straighten his tie.

“Come on. It’s almost five now. We should head out. You got any spell craziness you wanna get out before meeting the crowd?”

Tony scoffs. 

“Couple thousand of my closest friends, yeah? Dunno why it has to be some big secret. Someone’s gonna figure it out someday.”

“Pretty sure your dad will break a chandelier if today’s that day, man.”

Tony laughs. “Ah, that’ll be a good time. Just gotta make sure we’re not there for it.”

Rhodey claps a hand over Tony’s shoulder, and Tony groans as they head out of his chamber and through Stark Castle’s East Wing, until Tony’s mother stops them with a kiss to his cheek. He’d return it, but she doesn’t stop her husband when he insists on introducing Tony and his ward to the rest of the ballroom with a boastful toast to the Prince and his official entrance into manhood, so he doesn’t feel particularly affectionate. Tony himself could love a crowd like his father could, but just never at the same time; Howard’s reign had been too much an era of change that Tony hadn’t a chance of being anything but King Howard’s son when they were in the same room, and tonight like any other he’d rather dim the light on the legacy and let people assume the Stark name means he’s smart and maybe a bit interesting. 

So far, Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy were the only people who actually found him interesting, and they all worked for him. If Pepper were rich enough he’d just marry her and be done with the whole charade of trying to find a wife, but he’d already had that argument with his father a hundred times and wasn’t quite childish enough to raise it yet again. 

Thankfully, even though half the people who are here are women trying to catch Tony’s eye, he succeeds at warding people away until he and Rhodey are able to get and down a couple of drinks. On Queen Maria’s order, Pepper’s the first to seek Tony out for a dance, and after that there’s a long enough stream of jealous girls to keep him busy for a while. Rhodey and Pepper linger nearby him, interacting sometimes with various industrial partners of Stark Industries, like the SHIELD secret service, some of whom play security tonight and others of whom are integrated into the public - like Pepper’s supposed best friend Natalie, a spy who not only had magic just like Tony did but whom Tony was pretty sure was Pepper’s lover, too. Most things about her are scary, but it seems enough like a personality trait that Tony can stand her rather than assuming she means to frighten everyone.

She, however, was allowed to use her powers in front of people. She had a licence for that, signed by the SHIELD director herself; Howard’s fear of familial exposure kept Tony from having the right.

Not that he always stuck by that. He could restart people’s hearts, after all; what kind of man - hell, even what kind of _prince_ \- would he be not to use that to the kingdom’s advantage?

A shittier one than he already was, that’s what kind. He’s not the greatest at PR to start with, but at least he gave a damn.

Granted, not enough of one to enjoy having to play as nice as he’s supposed to; being among people was one thing, but having to impress them by his father’s standards was a whole different game, one he really didn’t like playing.

He does, however, like that he has people around him who know that very well...like Rhodey, who diplomatically pulls Tony away from an over-enthusiastic guest to introduce him to some military colleagues of his who’d made the great sacrifice of being witness to one of Howard’s events. For all anyone knew, broken champagne glasses would be strewn across the ballroom by midnight and people would find themselves waking up in the flamingo pen.

Tony and Rhodey had done that more times than either would like to remember, and probably more times than they actually _do_ remember. 

Rhodey’s longtime unit buddy Maria is unrecognizable in a red dress, far from her usual dress blues, as is her friend Sharon, the somewhat estranged niece of Tony’s godmother, more commonly known as the Director of SHIELD, in a pink number. Their dates are both men Rhodey’s mentioned on occasion, both half soldier and half science experiment, and neither what he expects: Barnes has a very obvious metal arm and a masculine demeanor that remains even with long hair and a light blue suit, and Rogers…

Tony has no idea what to think of Steve Rogers, mostly because his body starts giving him a lot of trouble with that particular function at the moment when they actually meet eyes, speeding up his heartbeat and clouding his mind and keeping their hands clasped a lot longer than is probably appropriate. 

Rogers, though, seems even more awkward than Tony is, and it gives him an excuse to care a little less about what might really be appropriate as they spend most of the night in conversation. 

Midnight insists on approaching with a vengeance - Tony’s deadline to decide on a bride and clue at least one of his parents in on his choice. Around eleven, he’s starting to think he should dismiss himself when he decides he wants to take advantage of the moments he has left as a bachelor prince, and suggests instead a walk in the courtyard. Steve - because they’ve gotten _there_ already - seems surprised at the gesture, but pleasantly so nonetheless, and offers Tony his arm on reflex before pulling back; Tony waits until they’re outside but then loops his arm into Steve’s anyway. He tries to seem casual about it and fails miserably. 

Miserably enough that an attempt at a half-assed explanation doesn’t do anything but make it a little easier for Tony to push himself up onto his toes and capture the soldier in a kiss.


End file.
